Anderson Cooper Fires Back at Star Jones

Today in celebrity feuds: Anderson Cooper squares off against Star Jones! This can only be settled in a steel cage, brother!

Or through passive-aggressive slights on daytime talk shows.

Back in July, Jones was featured on NBC's "Today" show and remarked that Cooper's decision to come out on his daytime talk show was a ratings ploy. In an upcoming episode of "Anderson Live," Cooper tore into the former daytime host in an entertaining bloodletting.

"I will say and I actually haven't mentioned this, the only thing that did kind of annoy me and actually it annoyed my mom who brought it up to me, Star Jones of all people," Cooper said. "I haven't thought about Star Jones in I don't know how long. I was unaware she was even on TV still... but she apparently shows up on [the "Today" ] show, out of the blue Star Jones said this was a ratings ploy by me to boost ratings!"

Cooper downplayed the 'revelation' of his sexual orientation, stating he had quietly made the announcement in an email to a friend who then posted it online. Consequently, when he came out publicly on his talk show, the news was not much of a surprise to audiences.

"If I was wanting to boost ratings, I would have waited to announce it on 'A Very Special Episode' that would have been [promoted] for weeks and weeks and there would have been commercials ... 'Anderson's Huge Announcement,'" Cooper joked.

Then, the bloodletting commenced, as the journalist continued, "As memory serves, in terms of boosting ratings, I seem to recall [Star] hocking her wedding every single day to get free products when she was on 'The View' and I seem to recall her lying about her gastric bypass surgery and making everybody else lie about it as well. So for her to suddenly emerge out of the shadows and suddenly attack me for this, I couldn't believe it."

On one hand, I see Cooper's point that he had already come out of the closet long before his daytime show episode. On the other hand, of course it was a ratings booster, as it was Cooper's first public address on his sexual orientation since he was outed.